


Riddler, Riddler, Let Down Your Hair

by goldenzingy46



Series: Tomarry Fairy Tale AUs [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Rapunzel Fusion, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blindness, Briefly anyway, Eventual Happy Ending, Fairy Tale Curses, Happy Ending, M/M, Prince Harry Potter, Sorcerers, Temporary Blindness, and feel sad about tmr sr because he doesn't deserve the hate, i actually had this one beta'd omg, in which we bash merope gaunt: a rapist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26949229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenzingy46/pseuds/goldenzingy46
Summary: Merope Gaunt fell in love with a man who did not even know her name and went to the sorcerer Grindelwald to have him for herself.Grindelwald claimed his prize: their first born child.Prince Harry Potter comes across a tower in a forest, and meets the young Tom Riddle.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: Tomarry Fairy Tale AUs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966525
Comments: 14
Kudos: 106





	Riddler, Riddler, Let Down Your Hair

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by [AdrianaSlytherin20](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdrianaSlytherin20/pseuds/AdrianaSlytherin20)

Once upon a time, a young girl fell in love with a rich nobleman. He was everything she’d ever dreamed of; tall, dark haired, like he’d been cut from marble. She’d watched him day and night, as he rode past her shack on a blindingly white horse, calling after another woman.

“Cordelia!” he called, and the girl, Merope, wished he’d call after her instead.

She could imagine it now. Tom Riddle, tall and proud, riding down to Merope Gaunt with a smile on his face and he’d take her hand, pulling her up behind him, and they’d ride off into the sunset together.

He didn’t notice her.

Merope had only one option left.

She’d heard the stories – they all had – of the sorcerer who lived in the forest. He was the most powerful, and most dangerous, of all, and he would exchange his services for a price.

She set off into the forest to find him, setting the story in stone.

She searched for hours, scouring the forest until she was hopelessly and utterly lost, until _finally_ , she came across an old hut, well-built and strong.

She knocked. “Sorcerer?”

An old groan echoed out from the inside, straining, and screaming and clawing out, screeching against Merope’s eardrums and she very nearly fled.

The door creaked open.

“I am the sorcerer Grindelwald. What would you have of me?”

And Merope told him all about Tom Riddle, and Grindelwald let the stream of emotions flow after him and laughed.

“You will have Tom Riddle, but I will have your first born.”

Merope was delighted. She ran back to the village, pregnant with a child Not Quite Right.

She ran away with Tom Riddle, and the story began.

***

Tom Riddle Jr. wasn’t stupid. He knew his father would rather be anywhere but here, in this small shack with his mother and him.

He knew something was wrong every time the blades failed to make an impact on his all too long and heavy hair, black as the night itself, or with his eyes, an unnatural shade of scarlet.

“What did you do?” his father would whisper, sometimes, and Tom would hate his mother all the more.

 _What did you do?_ Tom Riddle wondered, thinking of the plain woman that was his mother and how his father seemed so lonely.

The moon reached the centre point in the sky, and Tom felt it hit midnight. He was twelve.

And then the trees seemed to lean in all too much and the night was too quiet, the darkness too dark. The door thudded open.

“I am the sorcerer Grindelwald,” the figure said. “And I have come to collect.”

So _that_ was what his mother did.

***

“Sever your hair or I will punish you,” was the first thing Grindelwald said to him.

Of course, Tom failed, the heavy weight of hair hanging down from his head uncuttable and aching, and, as such, Grindelwald punished him by locking him in a tower with his hair the only way out. Talk about irony, huh?

He was trapped. Grindelwald came by every two days to gloat and bring food and water, pulling himself up on Tom’s hair. Goddammit, what a punishment it was, _painpainpainpainpain_. Far too much hair.

Then there was Harry.

A lonely prince, travelling outside of his kingdom to find himself, coming across the tower where Tom was trapped.

He had such pretty green eyes.

“Hello?” he called, eyes searching for signs of life. “Is anyone there?”

“Only I, Tom Riddle,” Tom responded. “Trapped by the sorcerer Grindelwald.”

“Is there any way up, Riddler?” said the prince, and Tom was infatuated.

“The only way to me is by my long locks of hair.”

“Well then, Riddler, let down your hair.”

Tom didn’t mind the pain when it was Harry. Harry was sweet and kind and helped him plan an escape, coming by day by day with another scrap of silk for him to weave. One day they would leave together, and Harry would be the prince, and Tom his Riddler.

Night after night spent together, kissing, and weaving and telling stories of a kingdom tom would one day see, until the ladder was nearly done.

Then Tom made a dangerous decision.

Grindelwald came again, as he did, calling, “Boy, let down your hair.”

And as always, Tom did with a scowl upon his face.

“Harry is easier to pull up than you.”

And Grindelwald went mad, using his magic to slash off Tom’s hair, leaving Tom free of the burden for the first time in his life, leaving him _free_.

“Run, little captive, run.”

And so, Tom did.

***

Harry came by, humming a happy little tune. Today was the day they would run away together! Be free!

“Riddler, Riddler, let down your hair,” he called, and there it was, unfurling above him.

Tom was not at the top.

Instead, there was Grindelwald.

“You’re not going anywhere, little prince.”

***

Harry had no idea whether Grindelwald knew just how much Harry knew about him. Regardless, he knew he only had a few moments to strike.

He lunged for the staff.

***

Grindelwald had never cared much for the human spawn he kept in a tower.

This was probably why he wasn’t aware just how observant Tom was, how he watched Grindelwald’s every move, made notes on the magic he cast, watched how the atmosphere changed around him, and was well aware that Grindelwald’s power came from his staff.

A small fact he’d imparted onto Harry.

So, Grindelwald was not prepared for Harry to snap his staff in half, rendering his magic useless.

***

Harry landed on the ground, a large chunk of wood clutched in his arms, Grindelwald snarling wordlessly.

“No matter your plans, your escape attempts will be for naught. The only way out is down below, so welcome to your gaol.”

But Harry was already running, falling, screaming.

 _For Tom_ , he thought, and fell down upon the thorns.

***

Tom had settled in a small house just inside the Kingdom of Gryffindor. Laws were more firmly ensured, here, than in Slytherin, and Grindelwald was certainly not going to pass through these borders. He still longed for his Harry, his beautiful prince, but he had to stay safe from Grindelwald.

The people of Gryffindor had not trusted him. His crimson irises were enough to make them fear him, and he had only gotten in because he told them of his fear.

The locals called him _Vol de Mort,_ flight of death. An insulting title but one that kept him safe, nonetheless.

So, when a blind man staggered up, scars littering his skin and clothes torn to shreds, Tom almost didn’t believe it, even though some part of him knew.

“ _Harry_?”

“Riddler,” he whispered, and Tom cried tears of joy, the first tears he would ever cry, and he cried the vermillion out of his eyes and into Harry, until Harry’s bright emerald stared into warm brown.

Then Tom knew, more than ever, that he was home.

The Riddler and his prince.

**Author's Note:**

> grindelwald, retying tom's hair so he could get down: >:(  
> grindelwald, hand slipping: oh no  
> hair: falls to the ground  
> grindelwald: is trapped
> 
> -
> 
> You could... poke your head into my [Discord server](https://discord.gg/37bXdGW)? I don't bite (much)!
> 
> Alternately, you could pop into my mess of a Tumblr [here](https://goldenzingy46.tumblr.com/), or my writing Tumblr [here](https://goldenzingy46butwriteblr.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Comments and kudos sustain me :)
> 
> [for bribe related reasons, i ask you to go and have a look at user [alfisha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alfisha)'s fics, and they are a damn good writer]


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